posted at 4:42 pm on August 21, 2012 by Allahpundit

Maybe ObamaCare won’t be so bad, guys. A couple of tweaks to IPAB, a little fine-tuning of those state insurance exchanges, and who knows? We might be able to duct-tape this boondoggle together and keep it aloft for a decade or two. If anyone can make it work, it’s President Romney, right?

Jennifer Duffy of Cook waves bye-bye to the prospective 51st vote for repeal:

#MOSen: moved the race to Likely Democrat.As long as Akin is running, it is unwinnable for Republicans. If he exits, it’s back to Toss Up.

Ed and ConArtCritic, who analyzes polls for Ace’s site, argue persuasively that the PPP poll this morning showing Akin up by a point is essentially garbage, as it’s based on a ridiculously lopsided Republican sample. (PPP is Kos’s pollster; go figure that they’d churn out some encouragement for Akin to stay in the race at a decisive moment.) A more realistic turnout model in Missouri would have McCaskill up comfortably by six or seven points, and that’s before the Democratic ad machine, now fully loaded with disapproving quotes from Akin’s fellow Republicans, goes to work on him.

But it’s apparently useless trying to point this out to the candidate: Paul Ryan called Akin personally yesterday to vent his disapproval and, just as I’m writing this, with less than two hours before the withdrawal deadline expires, Romney has issued a statement flatly calling on Akin to quit the race. Problem is, there’s really nothing the party can offer him to make it worth his while to go. Read this short but smart piece at Salon listing the many reasons Akin has to keep going. He’s old; he’s still got a more or less 50/50 shot at the Senate; he may or may not think his primary victory was divinely ordained, etc etc etc. If he were a younger pol, the GOP leadership might be able to tempt him with the promise of some plum position down the road if he plays ball now. As it is, the one and only argument his critics have is to ask him to put conservatism first and step aside to maximize our chances of repealing ObamaCare. You can see from his Huckabee interview this afternoon how seriously he takes that argument. Charlie Crist’s still the most nakedly careerist politician I’ve ever seen, but you’ve got to hand it to Akin: Even Crist never put his own ambitions above his party’s top agenda items.

He can still quit after today’s deadline passes, but to do so he’ll need a court order. Can he get one? As Nate Silver notes, four of the six justices of the Missouri Supreme Court are Democratic appointees, and Akin has no stronger supporters in America right now when it comes to staying on the ballot than Democrats. Meanwhile, if Priebus and Cornyn are serious about withholding money from this guy in the assurance that conservatives will blame Akin for the eventual loss, not them, I think they’re kidding themselves. Once it’s clear that he’s in the race to the bitter end, the calculus among many of his critics will shift from “he’s a moron” to “he’s a moron but he’s our moron,” such that if the RNC and NRSC cut him off, the dreaded Beltway RINO establishment will be blamed for not having done everything they could to make the best of a bad hand. (That would be less likely if McCaskill utterly crushed him on election day, but she’s sufficiently weak that she probably won’t win by more than four or five points. He’ll be competitive, sort of, down the stretch.) Never mind that the money they save might prove critically useful elsewhere; once Akin proves he’s a “fighter,” willing to tell both Democrats and Republicans to go to hell, that’ll earn him a certain base of populist support that will demand financial support from GOP treasurers on his behalf. And if they don’t provide it, they’ll be scapegoated, not him.

We’re 80 minutes from the deadline as I write this. While we wait to see if today’s pledge not to quit holds, here’s Rush Limbaugh via the Daily Rushbo.

Governor Scott Walker released the following statement today calling on U.S. Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) to remove himself from his U.S. Senate bid to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

“Representative Todd Akin’s comments were ignorant at best and completely outrageous. For the good of his state and for the good of his party, he should step aside immediately and allow someone else to run.”

Holding McCaskill’s seat is job one for Democrats, but obviously they want more out of Akingate. A lot more.

Weird that his Missouri office’s phone isn’t working (goes to some odd automated service that asks you to put in a phone number as if you’re accessing a voter vault service or something), nor does the e-mail form on his website work either. It bounces back your e-mail and says that the website is not taking e-mails.

Missouri open primary “betrayed” the GOP not Rush. Dems voted for Akin as crossovers, GOP vote split between Brunner and Steelman. Akin was Obama’s chosen candidate. He’s been told the facts and still stays. Man needs haldol.

Nov 7 it will hit him like a ton of bricks. All his political capital is worth nothing now. In politics, your peers and constituents love having you around until you screw up. He screwed up and had a chance to make good, but he and his stubborn wife decided to ride this out. November 7th he will read a concession speech to a room full of the only people in the country who don’t want to spit in his face. And he better look around closely as those will be the only friends he’ll ever have. The rest of the country will despise him.

No deal. It was ruled by SCOTUS to be a tax so it only needs 51 votes to pass. I’ve been laughing my azz off about how political Roberts is and how nobody sees it. He voted specifically to agitate the base to get out and retake the government. If a donkey/lib did this, we’d be screaming for his/her head. The donkeys can’t gripe because they “won.”

Pure genius.

platypus on August 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM

Yep that John Roberts is a genius. He could have just stayed with his original vote and the whole law would have been unconstitutional, but that’s not smart, that’s stupid. We need genius and boy did we get it. A real stroke of genius came over him and he decided instead of ruling the whole thing unconstittutional he would make it a little easier for a future congress to repeal it. Yep that’s what I call genius right there.

Did everybody forget what got the tea party started? ObamaTax and GOP party elites.

platypus on August 21, 2012 at 6:09 PM

I wouldn’t leave TARP out of that equation, it had more to do with my participation than Obama did. You think that the GOP betrayed Mr. Akin? Wait while we watch what they do with with what he said, inadvertent I will admit, but the ads write themselves.

From what I have seen, there are very few people willing to take such a strong pro-life principled stand as this man has apparently done in the past. Most people avoid talking about it. I am pretty appalled by this whole situation and people’s ridiculous outrage. Are people really that stupid that a man’s many years of service are struck down by one mistake–for which he apologized? If I lived in Missouri, I would vote for him.

No deal. It was ruled by SCOTUS to be a tax so it only needs 51 votes to pass. I’ve been laughing my azz off about how political Roberts is and how nobody sees it. He voted specifically to agitate the base to get out and retake the government. If a donkey/lib did this, we’d be screaming for his/her head. The donkeys can’t gripe because they “won.”

Pure genius.

platypus on August 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM

Genius? Are you as insane as Akin?

There are FOUR permitted taxes under the Constitution:

Capitation: A direct tax on a person or property, but must be apportioned amongst the states under the US Constitution.

Excise: A tax triggered by a “taxable event” like a death or sale.

Income: A tax on income.

Impost: A duty or tariff on imports and exports imposed by the government.

The Obamacare mandate tax is NONE of the above. Roberts created a special new kind of new tax and he re-wrote the legislation to do it.

Now, he has given our overlords in DC the blueprint on how to “legally” impose mandates on Americans of all kinds in the future.

There was NOTHING “genius” about Roberts’ decision.

PS: The Supreme Court’s purpose IS to protect the people from the overreach of government, including when said people elect the idiots to office. If the Congress and Obama passed a law requiring each of us to work for the government for free 4 hours per day, it would behoove the SCOTUS to overturn such a law as violative of the 13th Amendment. We should not be scolded by the CJ and told that our only recourse against such tyranny is at the ballot box.

I’m lost as to why people are so adamant about a Republican controlled Senate…We’ve already gone that route along with a Republican majority in Congress, a conservative Supreme Court and a Republican administration….Remember? 6 years of watching the Republicans spend us into bankruptcy….

…and it would appear (at least at HA) that the future of America and its citizens rests solely on the shoulders of a Missouri Congressman….give me a break.

What the Democrats did to this country when they gained power in 08 is no different than what the Republicans did when it was their turn in 2000 and no different than what they’re going to do to us in 2013. We’ll see who’s right on this one…but I have history on my side and you know what they say about history….?

No deal. It was ruled by SCOTUS to be a tax so it only needs 51 votes to pass. I’ve been laughing my azz off about how political Roberts is and how nobody sees it. He voted specifically to agitate the base to get out and retake the government. If a donkey/lib did this, we’d be screaming for his/her head. The donkeys can’t gripe because they “won.”

Pure genius.

platypus on August 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM

If repeal should come up for Reconciliation as a “tax” then 51 votes would indeed suffice–but the RINO votes will still have to be “bought.” Murkowski & Co. will hold out for many pounds of porkie flesh. Mitt will have to be in the WH of course. A 50-50 split is certainly not unforseeable, with the VP casting a tie-breaker vote. RINOs have a way of folding under extreme pressure.

Even more “genius” would have been for Roberts to strike down the law as unconstitutional, which of course it is. Future liberal congresses will never cease reintroducing it.

Yep that John Roberts is a genius. He could have just stayed with his original vote and the whole law would have been unconstitutional, but that’s not smart, that’s stupid. We need genius and boy did we get it. A real stroke of genius came over him and he decided instead of ruling the whole thing unconstittutional he would make it a little easier for a future congress to repeal it. Yep that’s what I call genius right there.

bgibbs1000 on August 21, 2012 at 6:16 PM

And Roberts genius didn’t stop with just using the tax code to make the thing constitutional. He went even further with his genius. He used his new found genius to create within the tax code the ability to use the tax code to force the citizenry to behave as their leaders see fit. Super genius right there.

From what I have seen, there are very few people willing to take such a strong pro-life principled stand as this man has apparently done in the past. Most people avoid talking about it. I am pretty appalled by this whole situation and people’s ridiculous outrage. Are people really that stupid that a man’s many years of service are struck down by one mistake–for which he apologized? If I lived in Missouri, I would vote for him.

LL1960 on August 21, 2012 at 6:24 PM

One mistake? Last Friday, he thought that it was a good idea to suggest that we “revisit” civil rights and voting legislation. This during an election year when the first black POTUS is standing for reelection.

I’m really tired of everyone making this about abortion. As a victim of rape — I wasn’t going to write about personal matters — I am sick and tired of people here glossing over the whole “legitimate rape” part of his comment. Add that to his belief in the Magic Vajayjay Shield and the man is just not smart enough to be in the Senate.

More than anything is that he has shown that he is more interested in his own political career than in anything else.

Didn’t a Republican House member from HI endorse the Democrat? We are living in weird times. I was surprised that Ms. McMahon beat Christopher Shay but obviously the folks in CT know him better than I do.

If the Congress and Obama passed a law requiring each of us to work for the government for free 4 hours per day, it would behoove the SCOTUS to overturn such a law as violative of the 13th Amendment. We should not be scolded by the CJ and told that our only recourse against such tyranny is at the ballot box.

Resist We Much on August 21, 2012 at 6:24 PM

Ah, but, you see, we already do work four hours per day for Goberment, state, local and national because the commie corruptocrats from both parties have hidden taxes in everything we purchase, view, drink, eat, earn and inherit and if they have their way the air we breath!
This far right social conservative may have just hung around our necks the cross we and our Republic will be crucified upon!
Took a marginal fringe position and because of the Party Plank hung it around all Repunks necks. Wonder who paid him to destroy America?

Didn’t a Republican House member from HI endorse the Democrat? We are living in weird times. I was surprised that Ms. McMahon beat Christopher Shay but obviously the folks in CT know him better than I do.

Cindy Munford on August 21, 2012 at 7:50 PM

No, it was a Republican House member from Alaska. The corrupt Don Young, King of the Pork. But

Shays is a tool. He didn’t even care to campaign properly. He just entered to race to whine about McMahon’s money. She’ll do better than people expected, she learned her lessons from 2 years ago. She won’t win unless the Democrat loses, but she’ll be ready to seize any opportunity.

I’m still confused by all the calls for him to step aside. Outside the inaccurate part of the whole rape causing a woman’s body to stop fertilization, it was pretty tame stuff and everyone is distancing himself because of politics. If making one mistake is enough for people to turn on you, then to hell with them. Good for Akin. He won the primary, he thinks he can win, he thinks he will do good for his state. The notion that in today’s era you make one mistake and you’re tossed under the bus is outrageous. Heaven forbid our candidates not be perfect little robots.

Given how angry Tea Party activists and Republicans are at Akin’s inane stance, resources can be used to support one of the 2 opponents Akin had: Preferably, Steeleman, as Palin supported her and that is a big spotlight.

I will also remind everyone that such an approach work worked in the Alaska Senate race in 2010. Though, this time, the write-in candidate will have grassroots support on a vast level.

Akin’s idiocy has caused me now to support McCaskill. I urge the Missouri GOP to think outside the box if Akin remains.

Can’t just “write in” someone in Missouri. State law says you have to register to be a write-in candidate, and that deadline has passed. If you vote for anyone not on the printed ballot the votes simply do not count.

Heard this guy on insHanitty, he sounds certifiable, someone should demand a doc check I am not sure he lives in realsville.

ConcealedKerry on August 21, 2012 at 5:57 PM

he’s from the same ‘ville’ as Biden (mentalville that is), the sad part being that Biden is our VP…makes one question obama sanity too…this akin dude will lose, no doubt and we will never see his face again (not before he does a lot of damage to the cause unfortunately), but Biden will still be around for a looog time, hopefully not as VP…